Nacional De Cuba Havana

Day 1 and a Half: La Habana, Cuba When: April 24th, 2008, 11:14pm local time Point of Entry: Hotel Nacional de Cuba As a resident Angeleno, sometimes I feel like the Spanish language has become second nature to me. Of course, having spent 4 years of my high school academic life on Spanish Language classes, isn't something to balk at either. Now I'm not saying I can hold court with Selma Hayek or Penelope Cruz anytime soon - far from it, actually. But I'd like to think that I can say more than...

Back to Havana to meet the guys and do some touristy things. This time we ventured into the Old Town, which is a Unesco World Hertigae site. This is a whole different side of Havana. The buildings are unbelievable here. Myself and Claire didnt want the others to feel lonely in the 5 star Nacional Hotel so we booked in for 2 nights ! The first night we felt guilty that it cost the same as 7 nights in a case but we soon forgot about that !

Three flights later Paco and Conchita arrive in Cuba. Havana airport at 11pm is not exactly humming, so we bought some ¨convertible pesos¨and grabbed a taxi. Leaving the airport we encountered ou first 50's american cars...awesome! Driving in Cuba is a mix of Russian Lada's, American classics held together coathangers, and now modern asian manufacturers, who clearly have no issues with the Castro's. Arriving at the Hotel Nacional, a classic early 20th century hotel (Winston Churchill's favour...

So, out of the grasp of the accommodation Mafia and bravely on to Habana to make our own arrangements. Luis and Maribel's room was occupied for two more days but they found us somewhere to tide us over. Our first day with them they had the family around to share a bottle of rum with us and talk about Cuba. Our Spanish notwithstanding it was a fascinating morning. They were open about their lives, their frustrations, how things were before, what worked, what didn't. I asked Maribel's mother if...

Ross and I both slept very well, but woke up with pretty upset bellies. (Our sleep was aided by the '60s era Russian airconditioner.)We did manage to eat breakfast in our courtyard where we had the usual fare of eggs, fruit, and bread, but also accompanied by some of the best hot chocolate I've ever had in my life. Delicious! After breakfast we had to lay down for a while to regain our strength. On our way out we chatted with the other two guests - two anthropologists travelling with their tw...

When we arrived in Havana after our 15 hour bus trip, our stomachs were still a bit uneasy, which contributed to our decision to stay at the Nacionale for the last two days of our honeymoon (pre-wedding). We knew that we were getting married in about a week and were hoping to have our digestive difficulties resolved by then! The Nacionale is a very interesting hotel. It's quite luxurious, particularly in the common spaces, but the rooms are a bit drab (but huge!). Clearly it's been well-maint...

In the price of our room we had a buffet breakfast included, so we checked that out pretty early. As you can likely imagine, it was the biggest damn breakfast buffet I've ever seen. Anything you want to order, cereal, pastries, fruit, juices, coffee (terrible!), yogourt and many other unidentifiable things. It was a good breakfast but again, nothing compared to what people had been feeding us in their homes. Further, our stomachs were still a little iffy in the mornings so we took it easy on ...

We arrived to Havana via Paris at around 6 local time and grabbed a cab to the Hotel Nacional.Loads to see in Havana and over the next few days we checked out the Malecon, Plaza de Revolucion, Museo de Revolicion/Granma, Habana Vieja, Museo Del Ron, The University, Partagas Cigar factory, Mojitos, Cuba libres and pretty much soaked up the atmosphere for the weekend.

Never accept "no" in Cuba. At the bus station, we reject several cabs which have no seatbelts, despite assurances that all cabs here will not have them. Once it's clear we're resolved, suddenly everyone is helping to get one rigged up for us. Same on price. With a better idea of the value, I refuse the first offer and the cost drops with ease and no ill will. We earn (no other word for it) a safe, fun ride through Vedado. The cab driver, Raoul, has an awesome tape playing, and we gab in Spang...

Sunday, we squeeze our way into mom and dad's cab to Havana. With 7 of us stuffed in, it means only my dad and the driver have seatbelts on. It's certainly not the most comfortable two hours of the trip, but we save over $50 and an hour doing this. :) The cramped quarters are more than compensated for by our great driver, who has good English and tells us about the north of Matanzas we're passing through. On the trip to Varadero, I was on the ocean side of the bus, so missed all the views inl...